Hello!

This is a question many of us have, and for those who don't, it's still a great thing to know and remember.

What is camo tanking? Camo tanking is when you intentionally do not pop camo balloons and let your hearts, or associated monkey knowledge (Mana shield and pre-game prep) do the hard work by sacrificing them.

Now what are the reasons you would do this?

There are three main reasons, the first is to conserve money to spend on other towers until you absolutely require camo detection, the second is for some difficulties that you won't need camo detection at all, and the final is for sacrificing lives to benefit from abilities like the 0-0-2 druid that grants attack speed up to 100 lives lost after placement, camo balloons allow you to do that safely as you can choose exactly what round to stop tanking at.

What monkey knowledge helps with this and why?

Mana shield located in the magic section, gives you a 25 over heal, that after a round of not taking damage, regenerates 5 lives per round until you take damage again.

Pregame prep is in the powers section, it pays down 20 hot tacks that pop all gallons in game.

When combined, the tacks are used first, then Mana, then health.

Alright how does this knowledge benefit me?

Having Mana shield or tacks and sometimes both on most difficulties changes up how and when you can stop tanking camps. I've provided a guide of every difficulty besides impoppable and chimps below with the round being the round you fail on.

Easy - with Mana shield AND/OR pre-game prep - fail at round 42, meaning you can complete easy with no camo detection with either ability, but you'd fail at 42 on freeplay or deflation.

Easy - NO MK - fail at round 37

Medium - any option - fail at round 37 - this is a tad disappointing but it does indeed do nothing different with MK

Hard - With Mana shield and / or pre-game prep - 37 - You need Mana shield to pass 36, pre-game prep is just an extra cushion.

Hard - Without Mana shield - 36 - You fail at 36 with no Mana shield, regardless of pre-game prep or not

Alternate bloons - With Mana Shield and Pre-game prep - 27

Alternate bloons - With Mana Shield - 27

Alternate Bloons with no Mana shield - 16

Hopefully this helps you guys!